Monday, December 12, 2016

The season in my area is coming to a close so we headed out for one last trip going after Rockcod, lingcod and a fun time!

We launched out of Port San Luis via the hoist at the sport launch. The hoist makes it very easy to launch the Parker 2110!

Upon launching at 7am, the fog was very thick and our Garmin 740s GPS navigation was heavily relied on.

High tide was around 645am and low around 1pm.

We started out in around 110ft of water off Pecho Rock up the coast from Avila Beach. Something cleanly bit through my 40lb mono line tied to a 6oz leadhead and 9" Big Sledge Hammer swimbait. Shortly after my dad lost a fish as well. Weird stuff, what could it have been? Another good ol' fish story!

After a few fish we moved a few miles offshore to around the 200ft depth. We began catching quite a few lingcod. A variety of baits were used from swimbaits to iron jigs to shrimp flies with squid bits. A few lings were also caught on small blue bass hitchhikers.

The bite seemed to taper off around low tide.

The final count was probably around 15 lings for the two of us, of which we only harvested 2 at 28" and 27". We also kept 2 vermillions around 16" long.

The fog never really lifted but it made for a nice day on the water with very little wind and a small 4ft swell. The water temperature was around 55 degrees along the coast.

How many of us have been fishing and anchored up with a real nice chum line going on that we have put some time into and then a rude boat comes and anchors right smack in the middle of the chum line, ignorant to the fact that was right where you were fishing?! Or if you are trout fishing on a lake with indicators that blow down wind/down current and another boat comes in too close?

Well I have seen it happen, heard of it happening, and had it happen to myself.

I have come up with an idea to keep people out of your chum line.

THIS IS ONLY AN IDEA. I don't promise it will work and I don't promise that there aren't better ideas out there.

Here's the idea: Use a rod with a big balloon tied to the end of the line and let that balloon float back into the chum line, basically indicating to others right where you are fishing. People are *slightly* less likely to come running over your balloon than they are into a 'bare' area that they didn't know was your chum line. You likely will need to have some kind of weight tied below the balloon to keep it somewhat stable.

Here is the next question: Do you fish a bait under the ballon or purely just use the balloon rod as a tool? Tough to say, you will have to experiment.

Would love some feedback on this post, feel free to post any other ideas.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

We fished around July 4th in Hilton and McGee Bays. Stillwater nymphing with copper head tiger midges in roughly 18-22 feet of water. First day was slow, second day we whacked 'em. All fish caught, photo, released!!!